Scintillating, Sparkling And Successful

I am writing this on Thanksgiving Day November 24, 2011. My great niece’s wedding on July 10, 2005 impressed me in several ways. I have a special tender spot for her in my heart, first, because she was and is my first great niece, granddaughter of my brother who is now deceased. She also had the good idea to be born on my 47th birthday. So she and I share this June 21^st day for our being born. She, a Jewish young medical student  at that time and her now husband, a Quaker, a PHD candidate were married in a ceremony combining both faiths in 2005. Family came from Missouri, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina and many other regions. The young couple called me several months before the wedding (knowing that aunty and uncle are ballroom dancers) and asked who I recommended for them to take a few ballroom wedding lessons for their first dance. I suggested our coach, John Dawson, here in Baltimore, Maryland. They were pleased with him and he with them and their first dance was magnificent for the initial dance of young people that are use to dancing without structure in the manner of young folks dancing today.

They looked lovely and polished and everyone applauded. They were both busy with their college studies and exams and long hours at the University of Maryland and they excelled. At their wedding ceremony, they had a poem recited, an old Chinese poem. It goes like this:

I want to be your friend

For ever and ever

When the hills are all flat

and the rivers are all dry

When the trees blossom in winter

And the snow falls in summer

When heaven and earth mix

Not till then will I part from you

The reason I am writing about all this is that ballroom dancing can be applied to that love poem. Ballroom dancing is our friend for ever and ever. When the trees blossom in winter and the snow falls in summer, then will we part from our dancing spirit. My husband and I got up and danced for the first time in eight and half months. We both had falls in December 04 and January 05 and we had to put up with many months of physical therapy and exercise and no dancing and lo and behold, on Sunday July tenth at our great niece’s beautiful wedding, the Claymans once again danced. Oh how wonderful it was to do it again after so long a time. We remembered (though a bit hesitant at times) our steps and our little together routines that we have in each dance and we felt elated. I did (he would not admit to it, though he did) and some guests remarked how well we danced. That in itself is like getting a trophy at a dance contest. The excitement and the high feeling one gets on this ballroom dancing phenomenon is like no other reward.

There have been about twelve weeks of dancing on ABC television on Monday and Tuesday nights and ballroom dancing got noticed by the general television audience. People all over our area are calling dance studios to ask about prices and schedules. There have been many articles written about ballroom dancing and how all of a sudden, it has emerged as an interesting thing to try and do. This is amazing to all of us who have been dancing this ‘thing’ for over thirty years. There are many out there who have been dancing more than forty years and no, we did not need any television show to entice us.

The rivers are not dry and the flowers did not bloom in the winter and the snow did not come in the summer. We knew that dancing was our best friend and did not part from it. William Shakespeare said  "Love is not love which alters when its alteration finds; it is an ever fixed mark." I have used this sonnet line before in other articles, but it surely describes things as they happen.

We, old time ballroom dancers need not watch a television special that went on for twelve weeks to alter our feeling for our love-ballroom dancing for ever and ever. What Shakespeare meant, I presume, is that love does not change when it is changed for some reason. We love our family in different ways; we love our children one way, our spouse in perhaps another way, our parents in what I call a parent way and our siblings in a different way. As we mature, we may find we love them in a different manner, but nevertheless, we still respect and love them.

In dancing, which I know a lot about and perhaps in other sports or hobbies that I do not have knowledge of; we are impressed with certain aspects of the event. Some that ballroom dance just go for the social atmosphere they inherit every time they attend a dance. Some go to become competitors with their teachers against other couples and hope to win a trophy or award. Some go to enhance their mental powers, because, believe me, to dance is to use your feet and most of all your brain which directs your feet to move and your body to sway. Whatever dance means to you is correct for you. Dancing With The Stars is over until next season, which is probably in the springtime. The winner with his teacher is J.R. Martinez, a veteran of the current wars, who was injured extensively from a bomb.

His going on the show, competing, learning, absorbing, dressing up and being proud of who he is right now regardless of the damage to his face and body proves that ballroom dancing withstands everything one has even if it has been a terrible blow to that person. When he smiled after completing a dance each week, his eyes shined with the perfection he had achieved just then. His face had a luminosity,  with all the meanings of a handsome male. He was glorious in his attitude coming on the show and he was simply a refined, decent and kind competitor.

This all proves that ballroom dancing not only is excellent for the beautiful, young and ambitious person; it can help everyone including someone who has been visibly harmed by the ugly thing known as war. J.R. came out with a glow around his head and a sparkle from his heart and anyone who saw him felt it through the television tube.

As Shakespeare talked about alteration, so did J.R. have maximum alteration, but the alteration was not perceived by anyone watching him. They saw a whole, happy and loving person performing.  Rivers did not run dry because J.R. was not dry, trees did not blossom now in the fall and snow did not fall yet in most parts of our country.

We also, did not part from anyone and J.R. did not part from us. He became a piece of our heart because we saw an injured soldier come back and pick up his life again even though he suffered terrible times.

We can all learn a lesson from him and other soldiers who return from the war torn places they have been for months and or years. Never give up when adversity takes over your life even for a short time or possibly a long time. You have the strength, ability, controlling force and capability to overcome almost everything bad in your life. He did and is doing and by showing his energy and skill, we can discover our acuity from his eagerness to be a star in any form that we have the desire to accomplish.

We need no dry rivers or snow in summertime to realize we can sparkle, shine and be happy.
Truly, this time on television, J.R. Martinez was a dancing star that forever will be shining in the sky. We who watched him blossom in almost wintertime know whenever, it will snow in the wintertime or the trees will blossom in the coming spring; life will be our friend and we can be scintillating ambassadors to show others how to overcome bad times.

From that poem being read at my great niece Paula’s wedding in 2005, I became two years ago, a great, great aunty and that is something special.Sparkling,glittering and a brilliant feeling, it is to be a great, great anything, but when it applies to an aunty happening, it is indeed scintillating for me.Rivers will not run dry and our trees will blossom again and men like J.R. Martinez have shown us the way and we shall follow him and be successful, proud and happy.